Hello all! I know this is very late, along with Olympus, I'd love to give a very profound reason, but the simple truth is, I needed a break. I have been writing still, but I needed an overall break from anything dealing with schedules, and pleasing others. Personal reason I won't bore you with. But I will put several chapters of Blood Born up over the week, maybe. Olympus will be whenever I finish writing my massive 25,000 word long chapter.
This chapter is not Proof-Read, fair warning. However, I do hope you enjoy it as much as I enjoyed writing it.
On a further note, over 400 followers! I am truly astounded and happy. ^.^ Thank you for your continued support and aid in furthering my story.
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Rage
I had begun to gain a migraine after listening to Aegis, and Moon explain what was occurring. The ancient leader of the Draconian Empire awakening, how she had sent a party to retrieve myself, and my Pride. The fact that the Blood Father, my Father, wished to speak to me soon, that each of the original eight of my Pride were offspring of the Ten, along with the fact that I had siblings, one of which would soon speak to me in private.
If he was a member of the Pridelings themselves, then it likely meant either I ensured the private affair occurred, or he would make it.
I rubbed my eyes gently, and continued to listen to the calm, almost monotone and methodical explanation of what was expected of us.
Apparently since the Blood Father had decided to acknowledge his blood affiliation with me, the Ten had taken it upon themselves to do the same in their own time. It also came with a long list of things that would be expected of us, as individuals.
That annoyed me the greatest, frankly.
Suddenly there were expectations placed upon us, not only were my Pride, and myself being recognized as what counted for Prideling Royalty. This in turn apparently came with rules, and we were made very clear that our utter weakness was a blight upon each of our respective parents, none more so than mine, it seemed.
Well, my thoughts to that quickly turned from annoyed to all but screaming fuck you, and wishing to rip Moons beautiful head off her shoulders. Not that I could, yet, but it was still a heavily seated desire.
But as I could not do that, I sat and listened, all the while growing more and more irate at the matter.
We were Berserkers, for fuck sakes, we did not have familial obligations beyond those within our Pride, we were forces of death, and destruction, bred for killing and dying alone. Yet now, here were two of the main powers within our people, explaining that we were shameful blights upon their names, and how we had to grow stronger.
Simply because they decided to accept their blood bound descendants in us. None of us were their first, nor would we be their last. But suddenly, we were the most shameful and important creatures in their arsenal. It was mind boggling, truly.
Moon and Aegis took turns droning on about this, and I admit to zoning out while idly fiddling with Saphiria's left ear. She was enjoying it, judging by how her tail continued to twitch into my thigh. A small comfort, I suppose.
Incidentally it did cause a small growl to come from Bitter who was closest to me. Jealousy seemed to run rampant within my three mates. It was also their nature in general, rather our nature as a species. They viewed her as a threat to what they believed theirs, therefore they would attempt to kill her. It was natural for our people. More so for the Berserker caste.
I was about to growl back at her, while Saphiria instinctively moved in closer to me. But Moon stopped it cold by asking if she wished to die, her head oddly tilted to the side as she did so.
That in turn caused me to nearly snap, she was my Mate, mine! No on threatened what was mine. Before I could do something incredibly stupid, and instinct driven however, my ears pricked as they picked up a slight vibration in the air, it sounded...like a scream from far away? The hell?
I was not the only one to experience this either. I felt Saphiria's ear prick up, the one in between my fingers, and saw Moon along with Aegis Flick there pointed ears back slightly in recognition, though they showed no real alarm at the sound.
In fact they seemed to care very little that someone, or something was screaming. Instead they droned on more, aiming the comments mostly at Anvil, and Cruelty in regards to their expected growth, and then it slowly went toward how if they remained weak, and a blight upon their Bloodline, that they would be killed without thought to wipe away the stain.
Anvil took that news stoically from Aegis, his Father. Cruelty actually seemed slightly afraid while her Mother, Moon, regarded her with her disturbingly ethereal beauty. It was disturbing as well, to take the full brunt of that beauty without a filter of some kind.
More so for Cruelty no doubt, considering her proclivity to the same gender of males. Added onto that Moon was her Mother.
I found that portion rather amusing, personally.
I restrained the urge to roll my eyes as the conversation shifted back toward myself. Though this time Aegis regarded my Pet over me.
"You should ensure she grows accordingly. She is the first to be...Turned since we Ten, and the original seven thousand who survived the process. The fact she is but half, an odd occurance, is no doubt the cause of your idiocy in trying to heal the worm. This does not excuse the fact she is inept in combat, he stance, posture, you are coddling this weak excuse of a creature because of a whim you seem to have for a pet."
His voice was cold, clinical as he continued on.
"Train her to be a match for either yourself, or your better, or kill her now. I will not stand one that was brought into the fold by Father to be such a weak coddled thing."
I felt the subject in question scoot into my leg further, all but hiding behind it in her attempt to avoid his words, and stare.
This time, I did all but lose my control, a growl forming in my chest about to release. What I did with what was mine, was my business alone.
Before the growl itself could be released however, another of those sounds reached our ears, louder, and it was less like a scream and more like something massive, and very angry. It was a roar, or a scream from something huge. It sounded....frightening, in truth. Like something predating current apex predators, however the sound seemed hollow as well, as though still a decent distance away, but growing closer.
The sound also reminded me of one of the Lizard based demons we had fought in the Pit, an eery cry that was both full bodied, yet seemed detached and scratchy.
It was really hard to place, it had nuances in the sound and it annoyed me I could not fully comprehend them at all.
Once again they ignored it, and I welcomed it as a distraction, though an annoying one. That changed a few moments later however when one of the cats burst through our closed door, nearly losing his life when an angered Moon lifted him by his throat in a matter of moments.
You could be reading stolen content. Head to Royal Road for the genuine story.
Likely the one thing that saved his life was the wheezed out 'danger' before he hit the floor on his ass, while Aegis and Moon were out the door to investigate.
I was out the door hot on their heels, followed by the rest of my Pride that was present. Just the Eight, and myself. The rest were all out in the meeting hall with the Red Guard.
The fact that none of them had come to retrieve us, those most likely to survive, meant that whatever it was, was either very dangerous or had destroyed enough of the Fort's defences to keep their attention.
Just what I needed, not being sarcastic, truly what I needed. A fight, one to set my blood flowing and pumping as endorphins and adrenaline surged through. Followed by that was the simple fact I had not been given a challenge in so long I felt as though my instincts were slowly dying.
It was the equivalent of a wild animal starving without food for days on end, though it has been months since the last battle between the Beastmen and Tridants Defenders.
I did not train with the others, I considered it beneath me. They were not able to draw out my full prowess, without ending in a violent and bloody death. Forge, perhaps, would be the challenge, but training fights involving two powerful members of my race tended to turn into true death battles as instincts, and the desire to kill those worthy took hold.
As such, I had abstained from such things, I did not maintain enough control in a fight to ensure survival of all involved. As such I trained alone, away from the rest and had begun to master more of my essence through that.
The true downside however, was that I had begun to embody the name given me in more than just my caste, and inherent Rage. The fact I could not control myself enough to fight a non-lethal spar meant that I was to full of anger, and violence.
To a degree, I could control it, everyday situations, but...What. In. The. Literal. Fuck. Is. That....
My thoughts came to a crashing halt as we exited the greeting hall in our mad dash, and I could see what, in my mind, was a giant scaled tower bashing its head into the second wall, and watching as steel and stone flew backwards, along with several bodies. Both the Cats, and my Berserkers and Blue Guard, they flew through the air like rag dolls from the sheer force of the strike, followed by a large boom and echoing roar that rent the air. The force of which we could literally feel press against us at the Keep's entrance, a good mile from the second gate.
I felt the first trickle of fear slide down my spine at the sheer ferocity and hunger I felt directed at every living thing in the area. Even Aegis, and Moon stood still a moment, though they appeared calm, perhaps they were simply shocked to see, what I assume, is a wingless dragon bashing it's way through our second wall and bum rushing through the town right toward us...Oh thank you, so very much.
A challenge, a true challenge of primal strength and fear inducing visage. Beyond that, it reminded me of the Lizard that was our real Master within these lands, aside from my...The Blood Father. I refused to acknowledge that man as a father, and though the Berserker Class did not truly understand or have parents, we were bred to be expendable war assets, thanks to Saphiria I understood just what a parent was, and from what I gleamed, he was in no way a parent.
Ignoring that, I heard the soft whisper of Behemoth within my mind. 'Master, we need to devour the beast...' Why? I thought at him, and he showed me an image.
It consisted of him, grown larger, though still snake like in appearance, this I learned dealt more with my own personality. Because I was cold, and felt next to no emotions for the better part of all things in this world, he took the form of a creature best embodying that facet of my psyche.
But he was a good three feet larger in the image, and he had grown forelimbs, though his lower serpentine body still slithered, and he had gained a second head. 'I will evolve, and through my evolution, you shall gain strength, Master.'
Well then, time is wasting. While I had lost my train of thought, the great bloody lizard had actually reached the third wall, leaving chaos, destruction, and death in it's wake.
"Kill it, child of our Father, show us you are at least somewhat worthy of his blood." Moon commented. Both she and Aegis were relaxed as they observed the destruction, the screams of dying cats and the roars of injured Pridelings echoing in the air.
I rotated my neck, feeling the bones grind against each other, and feeling a small amount of pleasure when the built of pressure caused it to pop. "As you wish, Great One."
I stepped forward, a small growl echoing out as Aegis moved closer to where my Mates, and Saphiria were, the implication was clear. Fail, and they died.
Now, now I was pissed.
I could all but feel my eyes gained the red tinge of a Berserkers Rage, and I charged forward, roaring at the wall which had just been busted through by the great beast. I dodged stone and steel, along with the odd body thrown from the destroyed gate as I watched the giant creature emerge, and then I let loose a roar of my own.
No where near as massive or large as the beast, but just as Primal, and ancient in its origin as the creatures. The creature paused it's charge, skidding in the dirt and regarded me, turning in a circle, and gaining momentum to charge forward again, roaring it's own challenge as it did so.
I saw something that belied time within its massive yellow eyes, It reminded me of when I looked into any of the Tens eyes, or the Blood Fathers. Time had worn away everything, leaving a cold barren wasteland within those yellow depths.
I was alone, fighting something that I had never heard of before, Behemoth within my mind processing the extra information and relaying it to me through or link at a sedated pace so i didn't overload. This allowed me to focus more on the beast.
To kill this monstrosity of size, would take time. Along with the knowledge I did not wish to be eaten or enter another things body again, the Demon in my first true fight had broken that habit.
When we were all of ten feet from each other, the creature swung its massive body at an angle, causing it to skid and slide slightly as it angled right, it's huge armored tail coming from the side to smack into me.
At the same time I jumped up, the desire to clear the tail, and land on the body my single thought....
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Yes, I know, cliffhanger of epic portions after so long. I am sorry. ^.^ But I want this fight scene in a separate chapter, because it will be very long, if I can manage it. But as I said, I honestly cannot do a schedule at this time. I will try for 3 days, but no promises. I am sorry, recent issues, and...well the fact of a personal matter that had me away from electronics for a time is the cause.
But I hope you enjoy this chapter, and have a lovely night. Much love and cookies.
As always, please rate, follow, favorite, and comment.